IPA

The story goes that the London brewer George Hodgson came up with an extra-hopped beer at the end of the 18th century that could handle the four-month sea voyage to India. Beer historian Martyn Cornell looked for evidence and did not find it, nor any claim by Hodgson or his successors that he had invented such a beer. His conclusion: 'no evidence of an actual inventor, no evidence of an actual invention.'

What is established: beer had been going to India since 1711, pale ale and porter in any case since 1784. Porter survived the journey just fine as well. And as early as the 1760s, brewing books advised hopping beer extra for warm destinations. That was common knowledge, not the discovery of a single brewer.

Hodgson really existed. His pale ale and porter went to India from at least 1793 and he became the best-known supplier, according to Cornell probably mainly because his brewery was close to the docks and he gave captains long credit. The little evidence there is suggests that the captains bought, among other things, a keeping beer brewed in October from him, which matured on the way; according to Cornell that was luck, not a plan. The BJCP also writes that Hodgson did not invent the style.

The name came only later. In 1822 'pale ale brewed expressly for the India market' was on sale in London, and the oldest known use of the name '(East) India Pale Ale' is an advertisement in Sydney from 1829.

According to beer historian Martyn Cornell, India Pale Ale was 'not even, in fact, a particularly strong beer for the time'. He gives figures of around 6–7% alcohol, about as strong as the porter of that day. Ron Pattinson, who works with brewery archives, calls IPA 'an ordinary strength beer': a beer of ordinary strength.

Pattinson also points to a technical reference work from 1867. Brewers only got excise duty back on exported beer that had a certain minimum strength before fermentation. That is why they brewed IPA for export at least that strong. According to the same reference work, beer brewed lighter was even 'better calculated to resist secondary fermentation and the other effects of a hot climate'. Pattinson's conclusion: the strength did not help the beer survive the journey.

The BJCP, too, explicitly warns against the assumption that the alcohol content of IPA was unusual for that time.

And today? The BJCP recognises IPA in three strengths: session (3.0–5.0%), standard (5.0–7.5%) and double (7.5–10.0%). Being heavy is therefore not a fixed characteristic of the style.

For the American IPA the BJCP gives a bitterness of medium-high to very high, 40–70 IBU. The Brewers Association gives 50–75 IBU for the West Coast style. With an IPA like that you taste clear bitterness.

The hazy or New England IPA works differently. According to the BJCP it has 'less perceived bitterness than traditional IPAs': low to medium-high, and often masked by the fuller body and the soft finish. The BJCP even sees a trend towards still less bitterness in this style. The Brewers Association calls the bitterness of a juicy or hazy IPA 'soft and well-integrated' and writes that the measured IBU figure can differ strongly from what you taste.

'IPA' therefore says mainly something about a hop-focused balance, not necessarily about a lot of bitterness. According to the style guides a West Coast IPA is clearly more bitter than a hazy IPA.

In master's research at Oregon State University (Barnette, 2018), dry-hopped beer was stored cool (3 °C) and warm (30 °C), with different amounts of dissolved oxygen. The storage temperature had the biggest effect on the aroma. With heat and more oxygen, tropical, citrus and hoppy aromas disappeared, and malty, dried-fruit and cardboard aromas took their place. Oxygen had a smaller, but demonstrable effect after just two weeks.

Other research, from the VLB in Berlin (2022) on eleven commercial hoppy ales, shows that it is more nuanced. Some hop aroma compounds stayed reasonably stable, other aroma compounds (esters) less so, and compounds that go with ageing increased.

The Brewers Association writes of the double IPA that the beer must show 'the fresh character of hops', without oxidised or aged flavours.

So store IPA cool and drink it fresh.